LONDON STATUES - ARCHITECTURE
LONDON STATUES - ARCHITECTURE
This post gives me the opportunity to dig out some photos from a helicopter ride over London. As memorable experiences go, it is right up there with flying the Grand Canyon, diving the Great Barrier Reef, and standing on the Kop when Gary Sprake threw the ball into his own net.
Thomas Cubitt (1788–1855)
Thomas Cubitt wasn’t just an architect - he was a developer before the word existed. He effectively invented large-scale London housing estates, creating elegant, uniform streets for the growing middle classes. His influence is felt less in landmarks and more in the fabric of everyday London. He also built homes for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, including Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
Denbigh Street (Cubitt bricklaying in Pimlico)
Major London works: Pimlico; Belgravia (Eaton Square, Belgrave Square); large parts of Bloomsbury.
Bessborough Gardens, Pimlico
Belgrave Road, Pimlico
49 Belgrave Square - home of the Argentine Ambassador
Osbourne House, Isle of Wight
Osborne House was built between 1845 and 1851 as a retreat for Queen Victoria. Complete with two belvedere towers, it was designed in the Italian Renaissance style by Prince Albert with Cubitt acting as the builder and project manager. The royal couple paid for much of the furnishing of the new house from the sale of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.
John Nash (1752–1835)
John Nash gave London its Regency elegance - sweeping terraces, crescents and grand vistas designed as theatrical set pieces. Working closely with the Prince Regent, Nash reshaped central London into a unified urban vision, even if his spending horrified the Treasury. Nash’s urban conception and street alignment survive, especially in Regent Street - even though All Souls Church is the only building there that remains largely as he designed it.
All Souls Church, Langham Place
With its distinctive circular Ionic portico and tapering spire All Souls is considered a key example of Nash's style. Consecrated in 1824, All Souls was badly damaged by a Luftwaffe parachute mine in 1940; it reopened in 1951. In 1971 it was discovered that Nash had incorporated unusually deep foundations to give stability on the swampland on which All Souls was originally built. This made it possible to construct a whole new church hall under the main church. Major works: Regent Street; Regent’s Park terraces; Buckingham Palace (major remodelling); All Souls Church; Marble Arch; Royal Pavilion, Brighton.
Regent Street
Nash’s overall layout of Regent Street survives - the sweeping curve, the axial planning, the processional route toward Regent’s Park, and key intersections like Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus.
Buckingham Palace
Nash remodelled Buckingham House to create Buckingham Palace (1825-1830).
Marble Arch
The triumphal arch was originally designed to stand in front of Buckingham Palace. It was moved to make room for an extension to the palace to accommodate Queen Victoria's growing family - and became the entrance to Hyde Park and the Great Exhibition.
Royal Pavilion, Brighton
Nash's exterior is based on Mughal architecture. The Chinoiserie style interiors are largely the work of Frederick Crace. It was built as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, who became the Prince Regent and then King George IV.
Andrea Palladio (1508–1580)
Palladio was the architect who turned ancient Rome into a repeatable system - and accidentally designed half the English countryside. Palladio took the temples of antiquity, distilled them into clean proportions, columns, pediments and symmetry, and then applied the whole lot to country houses. His ideas spread less through buildings than through books, meaning Palladio became one of the most influential architects in history without ever leaving Italy. A triumph of publishing, really.
Chiswick House
Palladio never visited England, but Lord Burlington was a big fan, building Chiswick House as a copy of Villa Rotonda.
Chiswick House
Palladio, born Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, only became an architect in his thirties, after starting out as a stonemason. America’s early architecture is basically Palladian as Thomas Jefferson was obsessed with him.
Most famous works: Villa Rotonda; Basilica Palladiana; San Giorgio Maggiore.
Joseph Paxton (1803–1865)
Joseph Paxton came to architecture through gardening, taking inspiration from greenhouse construction. His use of iron and glass revolutionised building techniques, proving that prefabrication and modular design could be beautiful as well as practical. His masterpiece was the Crystal Palace which he designed in just nine days.
Crystal Palace
Major works: The Crystal Palace (Hyde Park / Sydenham – demolished); Chatsworth House conservatory.
The original Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851. It had the greatest area of glass ever seen in a building. After the exhibition closed, Paxton dismantled his gigantic structure and used the parts to construct an even bigger exhibition building within the sprawling Crystal Palace leisure park in South East London .....
Queen Victoria opened the park in 1854. But Paxton's creation was sadly destroyed by a spectacular fire on November 30, 1936. What remained was largely sold as scrap. Perhaps the structure wouldn't have survived Hitler's bombers a few years later. John Logie Baird had used it to install Crystal Palace's first television transmitter. It survived the fire but was demolished in 1941 so as not to be a landmark for the Luftwaffe. The current TV and Radio Mast is the most important in the UK in terms of households reached.
The only surviving part of the main Crystal Palace building is this somewhat underwhelming metal post - considered significant enough to be Grade II listed. A few statues have survived, including the large Joseph Paxton bust which was unveiled in 1873.
Richard Rogers (1933–2021)
Rogers dragged London architecture into the future with steel, glass and exposed utilities. His buildings wear their structure proudly - pipes, lifts and services on the outside, people at the centre. Despite being dyslexic, Rogers was a prolific writer and thinker.
National Portrait Gallery
This Rogers' bust (1988) is (unmistakably) by Eduardo Paolozzi.
Major London works: Lloyd’s Building; Millennium Dome (The O2); Leadenhall Building (The Cheese Grater); Heathrow Terminal 5 (with collaborators)
Pompidou Centre, Paris
Rogers and Renzo Piano, two emerging architects in their thirties, designed the first major example of an "inside-out" building with its structural system, mechanical systems, and circulation exposed on the exterior of the building, reflecting their belief that they had no chance of winning the commission. It opened in 1977.
Rogers repeated the trick in 1986 with the Lloyds Building. Its much-vaunted innovation of routing the service pipes outside the walls led to such costs related to weathering and maintenance that Lloyds considered vacating the Grade I listed building in 2014.
The Leadenhall Building, nicknamed the "Cheese Grater" was completed in 2014. Rogers' design was partially to maximize views of St Paul's Cathedral - essential when applying for planning permission. Norman Foster's "Gherkin" (30 St Mary Axe) can also be seen in this picture.
If you visit Guildhall Library there's a scale model of the City which illustrates how the high-rise buildings were planned so as not to unduly block views of St Paul's ....
Guildhall
O2 Arena (formerly Millennium Dome)
It has twelve support columns, the number of months in a year; is fifty-two metres high, the number of weeks in a year; and (you can see where this is going) a circumference of 365 metres.
O2 arena, Greenwich Peninsula.
London City Airport and Thames Barrier beyond.
George Gilbert Scott (1811–1878)
George Gilbert Scott was the undisputed heavyweight of Victorian Gothic, reshaping London’s skyline with spires, polychrome brickwork and unapologetic medieval swagger. Initially famous for designing workhouses, he reinvented himself as the go-to architect for churches, public buildings and monuments. Scott designed over 800 buildings in the UK, many still in daily use.
Major London works: Albert Memorial; St Pancras Station (Midland Grand Hotel exterior); Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Whitehall); Numerous London churches and restorations
Frieze of Paranssus, Albert Memorial
Oddly, the only statue of Scott to be found in London is one he himself was responsible for - on the Frieze of Paranssus which encircles his Albert Memorial, commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband.
Albert Memorial, Hyde Park
Remarkably the whole Frieze, featuring 169 cultural heavyweights, was carved on site. In the selection of the figures, only one exception to the "must be dead" rule was allowed -George Gilbert Scott himself, on the insistence of Queen Victoria.
Frieze of Paranassus, Albert Memorial
On the four corners of the monument are an elephant, a camel, a bison and a bull representing Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe ....
St Pancras Station
The Kings Cross station exteriors in the Harry Potter films are, in fact, of the considerably more impressive St Pancras International station.
The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel takes up much of the frontage of the station. It was originally the Midland Grand Hotel, designed by Scott, and one of the finest hotels in the world when it opened in 1873. But what was then luxurious and innovative eventually became outdated (e.g. there were no en suites) and it closed in 1935. After years of neglect, the hotel was redeveloped, with lots of Scott's original features, 'reborn' in 2011 as the Renaissance.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
The magnificent interior is not open to the public, except on Open House weekends ....
In 1932, Scott's grandson Giles Gilbert Scott designed the now-redundant iconic red telephone box - well, almost redundant .....
Parliament Square
I'm old enough to remember queuing to make calls from red telephone boxes. Now tourists queue to take photos - with their phones .John Soane (1753–1837)
John Soane, the son of a bricklayer, was a radical minimalist centuries ahead of his time. A neo-classical master of light, space and illusion, he broke rules while pretending not to. His London legacy is deeply personal - buildings designed not just to function, but to surprise, confuse and delight - especially his own house, which became his greatest legacy.
Bank of England, Lothbury Façade Sir John Soane Museum, Lincoln's Inn Field
Bank of England
John Soane designed the Bank of England's current building, working on it from 1788 to 1833. Later architects made changes to his original creation. But much of Sloane's design survives, including the distinctive 'Tivoli Corner' (above right) - inspired by the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli.
Soane disinherited his son George out of spite (after George had attempted to extort money out of his father by threatening to become an actor) and left his house to the nation as a museum ....
The house is preserved exactly as Sloane left it and, with its large collection of artwork, is one of London's most atmospheric museums. It is described in the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture as "one of the most complex, intricate, and ingenious series of interiors ever conceived". It is free to visit - no booking, so you might need to queue (it took me just five minutes to reached the front of the one above).
The Picture Room has three Canaletto Venetian scenes flanked by several Hogarth's. The side walls are false and hinged so they open up to reveal more paintings. Soane devised this ingenious method of display so the room could house three times as many pictures as would normally fit into a space this size.
Above are Soane's proposed plans and a model for his Bank of England. At the time it was quite unusual (and impressive) to produce a scale model of a project.
John Soane also designed his own family tomb, where he is laid to rest with his wife Eliza and their elder son John, both of whom he outlived ....
St Pancras Gardens
The design of the tomb influenced Giles Gilbert Scott's red telephone box.
James Walker (1781–1862)
James Walker was an engineer rather than a stylist, but London would literally fall apart without him. Consulted on hundreds of infrastructure projects, Walker's bridges, docks and embankments underpinned the city’s expansion during the Industrial Revolution. He also built twenty-one lighthouses.
Greenland Dock, Rotherhithe
Greenland Dock, built by Walker, is the oldest of London's riverside wet docks. His London works also included the original Vauxhall and Southwark bridges.
Christopher Wren (1632–1723)
Following the Great Fire of 1666, Wren gave the city a new architectural identity, blending classical harmony with Baroque drama. Best known for churches, he was also a scientist and mathematician - architecture was a job he never formally trained for.
In the space of thirty years from 1666 Wren built over 50 churches and St Paul's Cathedral.
Burlington House Parnassus Frieze, Albert Memorial
Guildhall Art Gallery British Library (designs for the Monument)
Guildhall Art Gallery British Library (designs for the Monument)
St Paul's Cathedral
Vauxhall Bridge
Here is a real curiosity, easily overlooked by passers-by. On the side of Vauxhall Bridge stands a maiden holding a model of St Paul's Cathedral. It is one of eight large bronze statues on the bridge, representing various allegorical figures. They were installed in 1907 by the London County Council. This is the best I could do with a long lens and without falling into the Thames.
St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside St James's, Piccadilly
St Mary-le-Bow is widely known for its bells, which also feature in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons. According to legend, Dick Wittington heard the bells calling him back to the city in 1392, leading him to become Lord Mayor. Traditionally, anyone born within earshot of the bells was considered to be a true Londoner, or Cockney. The church was badly damaged in World War II. But the tower somehow survived and, from 1956 to 1964, St Mary-le-Bow was lovingly restored to its pre-war condition.
Of the many churches Wren built, St James's is one of only four that were outside the area ravished by The Great Fire. John Nash added a vestry in 1815 and it was restored after being severely damaged by German bombs in 1940.
Around half of Christopher Wren's 52 churches in the City of London are still standing, with some having undergone extensive restoration after damage from World War II or other factors. Only five Wren churches were completely lost in the war.
The Monument
Wren's Monument is now dwarfed by surrounding buildings. But it is still the tallest free-standing stone column in the world. It is 202 ft high and 202 ft from spot where, in 1666, the Great Fire of London started in Thomas Farriners Bakery in Pudding Lane.
And yes - if anyone deserved to pose in front of their own masterpiece, it’s Wren. And that isn’t a passing impersonator. It’s a ChatGPT likeness, superimposed on my own photograph of St Paul’s.
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very interesting, as usual - and hadn't heard of james walker. where did the name palladio come from?
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